


Pride and Passion

by OneTrueCombo



Category: Street Fighter
Genre: Action & Romance, F/F, Karate Lesbians, Look How Progressive I Am, Martial Arts, Rival Relationship, Wow
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-29
Updated: 2018-08-29
Packaged: 2019-07-04 06:11:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15835371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneTrueCombo/pseuds/OneTrueCombo
Summary: The arrival of a new blossoming karate queen has Makoto irked!  Jealousy and rivalry give way to friendship, and later, to something more…





	Pride and Passion

**Author's Note:**

> Street Fight’s continuity is kind of a cluster-fuck, what with more than half the games being out of sequence, the vast majority of endings being non-canon and the UDON comics being in an apparently separate continuity from the games, but I’m going to try and place this in relation to the events of the games and comics as best I can. The story begins after the events of Street Fighter 1 and before the events of Street Fighter IV. Makoto is friends with Ibuki and Elena (as in the comics) and Sakura is friends with Blanka and Dan (as in the games). Neither Makoto nor Sakura has met Ryu yet (assuming here that Sakura’s Alpha ending is not canon for the purposes of this story), and Sakura has not received formal martial arts training outside of what she learned from Dan. Makoto has fought and defeated Dan (as in the comics) but has never met Sakura until now.
> 
> Makoto’s view on Ryu here may be a bit diverged from what’s portrayed in the games, but this is set well before SFIII, so I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume her view on him could change over time.  
> Also, I actually like Ryu, a lot, so PLEASE don’t take Makoto’s opinions on him as portrayed here as an indication of my own. Ryu is an awesome character and a dedicated martial artist, but I can see how Makoto could end up disliking him, particularly if she never met him and only had media portrayals of him to judge him by.
> 
> …Ken Masters can go jump in a well, though.
> 
> Why Makoto x Sakura, you may ask? I know Ibuki is a more popular pairing for Makoto, given they have more interactions and debuted in the same game, but I’ve honestly had trouble buying Ibuki as a lesbian. She simply shows too much interest in dating guys in canon. When I compare Sakura and Makoto, however, they seem like a perfect match. Both are girls who practice karate and love fighting and both have a strong tomboyish streak. Sakura does come off a bit obsessed with Ryu at times, but I read her fangirling as more based on admiration of his abilities than on romantic interest.
> 
> Also, Capcom hates giving official ages, so Makoto and Sakura are 18+.

                Kato Makoto had devoted herself to Rindo-kan karate since she had been old enough to form a fist.  For over a decade, she had strove to master the principles of striking, defense and grappling, had trained countless combinations, gone through countless drills and spars, practiced foot-work, balance, hand position and dozens of techniques, until each had been refined to the pinnacle of speed, power and efficiency.  She had toned her body, into, as Ibuki had put it, “fifty kilograms of whoop-ass.”

                And then a nameless hobo had shown up throwing fireballs out of his hands on world television, gotten beaten up by a gigantic Thailander, and had somehow become the face of karate as the world knew it.  Rindo-kan was forgotten overnight, and not even Makoto’s status as a hometown hero had managed to keep this son of a bitch from overshadowing her and the family dojo.  Despite cheap-shotting Sagat after the end of their match and not even having the good grace to show up for an interview after the fact, this man’s gimmicky, flashy bullshit had captured public attention in a way Rindo-kan’s solid, fundamentals-based approach simply couldn’t.

                “Who is the man called Ryu?” asked the cover of _Fighters Weekly_ in a melodramatic, bold-print font.

                “Who the hell even cares!?” Makoto answered before crushing the magazine into a ball and hurling it into the trashcan at the corner of her dojo.

                Ibuki peered over at her from the bench.  “Still pissed off about this Ryu guy, huh?”

                Makoto slammed her fist into her punching bag so hard the dojo shook.  “He’s just a novelty, a flash in the pan.  He’ll be forgotten by Tuesday.”

                Elena sipped a mango smoothie as she sat next to Ibuki.  “But, Makoto, didn’t you say something like that last week?”

                Ibuki smirked.  “And the week before that, and the week before that…”

                Makoto whirled, her face gleaming bright red.  “Okay, time for a spar.  Which one of you smartasses wants to go first?”

                Elena lowered her eyes.  “Um… I think I’ll pass today.”

                Ibuki grimaced.  “No way.  I know better than to fight you when you’re glowing red like that.  I have a written exam tomorrow in English, and it’s gonna be hard enough without you breaking my arms first.”

                The bell at the front door jingled, and a young woman with cropped brown hair stepped in, dressed in a school uniform and headband.  “Excuse me?  You teach karate here, right?”

                Makoto quickly calmed herself, turned to her guest and bowed.  “Osh.  Welcome to Rindo-kan Dojo. I am Kato Makoto.”

                The woman smiled.  “Good to meet you, sir!  My name is Sakura.”

                Makoto paused, her face blank.  “…I’m a girl.”

                “Oh, sorry.  That haircut and gi make it kind of hard to tell.”

                Makoto clenched her teeth, gradually regaining her composure.  “So, you wish to master the devastating art of Rindo-kan?”

                “Well, I haven’t had a lot of martial arts training so far.”

                Makoto smiled, somewhat smugly.  “You have come to the right place, my pupil.”

                “So, can you guys teach me how to do the Shin Shoryuken?”

                 Makoto froze, her smile beginning to sag.  “…The what?”

                “You know, like Ryu does on TV?”  She pantomimed throwing a dramatic uppercut, smiling broadly.  “SHIN!  SHORYUUUKEN!  I can do most of his moves, but I can’t seem to get the elbow-motion right on that one.”

                Makoto stared blankly, her mouth agape, the veins in her forehead throbbing.  Ibuki abruptly stood up, and pulled up Elena with her.

                “Welp,” said Ibuki, “it’s been rad, but we’ve really gotta go study for that exam tomorrow.”

                “Bye, Makoto,” chimed in Elena.

                “Try not to stain the carpet with her blood,” Ibuki called as she stepped out the door.  “Steam-cleaning is expensive.”

                Makoto looked hard at Sakura’s face, searching for some sign of mocking intent behind her apparent innocence.  “We don’t teach those kinds of moves here,” she said, curtly.

                “Oh?” Sakura was visibly disappointed.  “How come?”

                “Rindo-kan doesn’t rely on gimmicks,” Makoto spat, “nor does it blindly imitate whatever second-class fighter the television dubs the flavor of the month.  If you aren’t serious about learning martial arts, we don’t have a spot for you here.”

                Sakura scowled.  “Hey!  Don’t talk about Ryu that way.  He’d kick your scrawny butt from here to Tokyo and back.”

                “Oh yeah?”

                “Yeah!”

                “Well if you think this Ryu guy is so great, why don’t you show everybody how amazing his techniques are against me?”

                Sakura paused.  “…Huh?”

                “Don’t play stupid, stupid!” Makoto shouted.  “I’m challenging you to a duel!  I’m gonna prove those gimmicks you learned from TV can’t hold a candle to Rindo-kan.”

                “Oh.”  Sakura scowled again.  “Alright, fine!  I’ll beat you in Ryu’s name.  That’ll teach you to bad-mouth him.  Just name the time and the place.”

                “Right here, right n—”

                Makoto paused, reeling in her temper.  Rindo-kan Dojo was starving for publicity, and what better way to steal attention back from Ryu than by beating down one of his fangirls?  This was about more than pride, she realized.  This was an opportunity for an exhibition like no other, but drumming up attention for this would take a little time.

                Makoto cleared her throat.  “Right here, in two weeks.”

                “You’re on!”

“Make sure you bring all your friends so they watch me beat the pants off you.”

                “I’ll make you eat those words.”

                Sakura stormed out of the dojo.  Makoto returned to the mat and began to work through her kata at a furious pace, grumbling irritably as she practiced.

*   *   *

                Sakura sat across from Dan and Blanka at a noodle place, sulking over her ramen.

                “Is something bothering you, Sakura?” asked Dan.  “As my pupil, you shouldn’t hesitate to seek out my counsel!  I’m as wise in matters of the heart as I am in combat, you know.”

                 “I tried to check out this dojo,” Sakura said, “but when I got there, some girl started bad-mouthing Ryu!  So now I’m supposed to fight her in two weeks.”

                Dan laughed and thumped his fist against his chest.  “Hah! So you’re going to go fight for the pride of Saikyo martial arts.”

                “Something like that.”

                Blanka noisily swallowed a bowl of udon.  “What girl name?” he grunted.

                “Oh, you mean the girl I’m fighting?  She said her name was Kato Makoto.”

                Dan froze in place.  The memory of being blasted through the roof of a dojo by Makoto’s fist flashed in his mind.  Sweat rolled down his forehead, and he chuckled nervously.

                “Kato Makoto?  She, uh… might be a bit above you skill level right now.  Don’t get me wrong, you’re definitely showing promise, but I’ve fought Makoto, and she’s much stronger than she looks.”  He coughed.  “Still not as strong as me, of course.”

                Blanka snorted.  “Who Dan say strong no tell who strong.”

                Dan squinted.  “Excuse me?”

                Sakura clenched her fist around her chop-sticks.  “No matter how strong she is, I can’t back down.  She’s insulted Ryu, my hero.  My pride as a fighter won’t let that slide.”

                Sakura abruptly lifted her bowl from the table, drank the rest of her broth and set the bowl down again with a clack.  “That’s it!” she exclaimed, clenching her fist.  “I’m gonna go start warming up right now.”

                The young woman turned and stormed out of the restaurant, leaving Dan and Blanka ineffectually calling objections.

*   *   *

                It had been a day since that insolent girl had come to Rindo-kan Dojo, and Makoto’s exercises for the day were drawing to a close.  She stretched and breathed deeply, her eyes closed, her breathing steady.

                “You’re really dead set on this, huh?” asked Ibuki.

                Makoto didn’t open her eyes.  “We are destined to meet as rivals on the field of battle,” she said calmly.  “No quarter will be given.  I will destroy her and leave her with only pain and the undeniable truth of her own weakness.”

                Ibuki snorted, then gripped her stomach, laughing uproariously.  “BAHAHA!  Oh my god, how do you take yourself seriously!?  You sound like a freakin’ anime character, you dork.  It’s just a local exhibition.  It’s not like you’re fighting to stop some megalomaniac from leveling Tokyo with a giant laser, or save the world from a robot uprising or something.”

                Elena smiled.  “I don’t think she’s truly as disrepectful of Rindo-Kan as you believe her to be.  Why don’t you try making friends with her?  Clearly, you both love martial arts, so I’m sure you’d have a lot to talk about.”

                Makoto scowled, but kept her eyes closed and kept stretching.  “Loving martial arts is one thing, but knowing anything about them is another.  I don’t have time to waste with a poser like her.”

                “Uh, about that.”  Ibuki lowered her eyes to the ground.  “Remember how a couple of days ago everyone was talking about that huge thug with the weird hair who kept mugging people near the school?  Some British guy with arms the size of tree-trunks… what was his name?”

                “Bidie,” Elena offered, helpfully.

                “Right, him.  So apparently some girl he tried to mug beat him unconscious and turned him over to the police.”

                “Good,” said Makoto.  “Thugs like him should be brought to justice.”

                “But the thing is… this girl who kicked Birdie’s ass?  They say she was a young woman with cropped brown hair and a schoolgirl outfit, and they say she was using moves that looked just like Ryu’s.”

                Makoto’s eyes snapped open, and she froze.

                “I hate to say this, but this Sakura chick might be the real deal.”

                Makoto let her arms hang at her sides and lowered her chin.  “…I’ve come at this all wrong.  I was so sure of myself, I never even considered the possibility this girl might have actual fighting talent.”

                “Hey, wanna come hit the mall for a while?  You look like you could really use a little time to relax.”

                “Tomorrow.”  Makoto turned back to the punching bag.  “I’m not done here today.  I can’t afford to be.  I should stay here for a couple more hours at least.”

                Ibuki frowned.  “Well, alright.  Just don’t push yourself too hard, okay?”

                “Believe me, I haven’t reached my limit yet.”

                The bell at the door tinkled as Ibuki and Elena walked outside, leaving Makoko alone with the sound of her fists against the bag and thoughts of her new rival.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you've enjoyed the story so far! Not sure when I'm going to get that next chapter up, but you can look forward to ass-whupping. No telling on who's ass is whupped or on anything else anyone does to ass, however.
> 
> Always gain clear consent and use protection when engaging in epic karate duels against your Tsundere lesbian love interest.


End file.
